An Argument for Hate

[TheBigDog]

Every now and then I have the compulsion to write on an unpopular topic, or to take an unpopular stance. This thread is a double whammy. I am making an argument in defense of that forbidden emotion: hate.

 

I often hear how important it is for kids to understand and explore their feelings, that is unless that feeling is hate. Why do you suppose that is? My first thought is that hate is a "bad vibe" and rooted with "negative energy". In an attempt to avoid such negative energy we steer our kids away from feelings of hate in preference of anything else that is positive, often with the admonishment that hate is bad, wrong, wicked or evil.

 

To me hate is a useful, even necessary emotion that needs to be understood and used for its advantages. In my decision making process, I rely on my hierarchy of values to guide my responses to abstract stimulus and turn them into logical actions in favor of my survival. This is how hate is used at the subconscious/unconscious level to our advantage. It can be the hate of a feeling, a taste, or any sensation, but it is hate that drives us away from things and provides us with both mental and physical safety. I hate horror movies. More specifically I hate the imagery of horror movies, and remembering that hate of that imagery motivates me to stay clear of them.

 

Those are good, rational uses of hate. It is probably the irrational use of hate that gives it a bad name. Hate based upon race, religion, nationality or any other broad classification of people is considered to be not just bad, but wrong and even amoral. But is this broad rejection of hate a good thing? The human mind handles all things is a similar fashion, a perplexing combination of generalization and attention to detail. This becomes a survival skill as detailed above. Advertisers and movie directors get rewarded for understanding and exploiting the nature of these generalities (stereotypes) that are common in human perception. Yet in social situations the mere recognition of them can get you branded as a racist or bigot. It becomes a very complex social conundrum to understand the acceptable use of stereotypical expression.

 

Hate is a perfectly natural reaction of the human mind that is made in an effort to protect one's self. Hate is an emotion, which means that the basis is not always rational, as the imagination and rationalized extrapolation have a huge impact on emotional perception. That means that we may hate things not for what they are, but for what we imagine they might be, and this is not wrong, it is the way the human mind works.

 

Being able to overcome hate and consciously see individual things as they are and not a collection of similarities is another of the great gifts of the human mind, and a measure of what I like to think of as elevated thinking. This does not mean that there is not a place for more primal thought. Understanding when to rely stereotypical impressions, and when to look at individuals is a learned skill, and one that is again driven by generalizations within the human mind. So even in our attempt to avoid hate and stereotypes we use the same thought tools to know when to not use them.

 

One thing that has always bothered me is the concept of the "hate crime". Hate is a motivation, but it does not change the nature of a crime that is committed. If I vandalize property because I am an ***, or I vandalize property because I hate the race of the owners, the crime is the same. If I hit someone on the head with a pipe because of their religion, or just because I am mean spirited, the crime is the same. There might be an element of depravity found in the motivation of one crime versus another, but the idea that our thoughts are criminal above our actions is very disturbing. The crimes must be punished, but if we have no freedom of thought, including hate, then what freedom is there?

 

Like all things, hate is good in proper moderation. Use it wisely.

 

Bill

[TheFaithfulStone]

Interesting topic.

 

Here's one:

 

Hate is a form of validation. If I "hate" something I am saying - "You have a profound affect on me. You engender in me these strong negative emotions."

 

I cannot hate what I do not acknowledge to be important. Therefore if I hate bigots, I acknowledge bigots, and in a sense, I validate their stupid view points by making them worthwhile of a response.

 

Worse than hate:

 

Apathy.

 

I can ignore people all day without acknowledging their existence. Insects.

 

TFS

[sanctus]

 

Worse than hate:

 

Apathy.

 

I can ignore people all day without acknowledging their existence. Insects.

 

TFS

 

You seriously can ignore the small red ant climbing in your left ear and his big brother from the forrest being interested in your white globulas (with some pathogenes included) stored in your nose? :)

 

 

Seriusly now, TBD to deny the feeling "hate" would be to deny a part of humanity, it's a good feeling for survival. And I completely agree with what you said.

[infamous]

 

Like all things, hate is good in proper moderation. Use it wisely.

 

Bill

Absolutely BigDog, I just hate misguided hatefulness without good cause.

..............................Infy

[Buffy]

I like Hate because most people hate Hate in others, so its easy to look good by simply not appearing to hate!

 

I cannot believe how much easier life is simply because I say "Please" and "Thank You" to everyone for everything they do no matter how small. NO ONE seems to do this any more, and I think its no wonder that so many people are wandering around *seething* with hate!

 

Thank you all for making me look so good! Keep up the Hate Work!

 

Thank you! :lol:

Buffy

[Zythryn]

TBD, I agree about all things in moderation. However, I don't believe Hate is a noun, it is an adjetive.

 

Hate is an extreme anger. Just as dislike is a very mild anger. I have a dislike of horor movies.

 

I would agree dislike, anger and hate are all a part of being human. And that actions are what we should be judged on, not our desires.

And I think my blood sugar is getting low so I am rambling and not forming coherant lines of thought so I will end now....

[TheFaithfulStone]

You seriously can ignore the small red ant climbing in your left ear and his big brother from the forrest being interested in your white globulas (with some pathogenes included) stored in your nose?

 

Huh? :confused:

[Pyrotex]

Huh? :confused:

I think he means that there is this big army ant gonna bite a booger in your nose. :eek_big:

[REASON]

BigDog,

 

I think your observations are right on the money. Feelings of hate are as instinctive and natural as any other feelings. The need to try and suppress negative feelings is really more about the needs of the suppressor than it is a benefit to the suppressed. In a politically correct, "feel good" society such as ours, there appears to be no place for negative feelings such as hate.

 

I do believe that hate is often misdirected, and can be representitive of ignorance and fear. I've always associated the worst kind of hatred more with fear than disdain, and it can be very destructive. There's a difference between feeling hatred, and expressing hatred for others. The former may be a form of self preservation, the latter may just be mean spirited.

 

I also believe the term is over-used in our society. People refer to hating things when that's not really how they feel if they were to examine their feelings a bit closer. My daughter has stated more than once, "I hate my little brother." Of course, not liking the sound of that I say, "No you don't. And that's not a very nice thing to say." I deem her statement invalid, incorrect, and inapproriate. I'm sure she walks away thinking, "I don't care what you say, I hate him." Really though, I don't believe that she truly hates her brother, she's just irritated by him. But it has become a very easy way for people to express their simple displeasure, and I think it is abused in this manner.

[InfiniteNow]

Hate is a perfectly natural reaction of the human mind that is made in an effort to protect one's self.

You are confusing hate with fear. Fear is a perfectly natural experience. Hate is a learned response, and is only natural in so far as any other conditioned response may be.

 

Hate allows one to more easily define its opposite, but arguing for its utility and inherent goodness is misguided.

 

You are correct that we do not need to run from our shadows. Turning away from our negative emotions such as fear and anger will do nothing to pluck them from their earned place within our psyche. Such action would result only in neuroses and dissonance. We have a dark side in each of us. What is important is how we approach that darkness, and how open we are to facing our true selves.

 

Accepting hatred within yourself, however, limits your growth as a sentient being, and the growth of those around you. Such acceptance would be the opposite of growth; it would be the nurturing of a sickness.

 

Like all things, hate is good in proper moderation. Use it wisely.

The only good hate serves is to allow simpler definition of it’s opposite. Don’t confuse hate with fear. Use your fears wisely, bring them to the fore of your awareness, but pluck hatreds from your existence like weeds from a garden. That is, of course, unless your desire is to nurture ignorance.

 

 

“Enlightenment is not imagining figures of light but making the darkness conscious.” -- Carl Gustav Jung

[ughaibu]

I think hate is closer to frustration than it is to anger.

[sanctus]

Huh? :)

[explanantion]

I interpreted the thing I quoted in post 3 as that you can ignore insects for all day, so I exagerated a bit to show that this is not always possible.

[/explanation]

[CraigD]

I find a certain class of situations characterized as “hateful” to be attractive. I’m speaking of love, which philosophers to numerous to mention have asserted is opposite face of a confused, dichotomous coin with hate. A remarkable number of the great love relationships of my life began as great hate relationships, including my current wife of 20 years. I’d wager that many hypographers have had similar experiences. :)

You are confusing hate with fear. Fear is a perfectly natural experience. Hate is a learned response, and is only natural in so far as any other conditioned response may be.

I don’t believe hate and fear can be so neatly divided. It’s difficult to produce an hypothetical example of a human being reporting to “hate” a thing, without also reporting fearing the thing, or fearing something it may engender.

 

As the reporting of hate, or any use of language, is learned behavior, it’s relevant to look at social norms, by way of a dialog.

Bob: I hate Alice.

Me: Why do you hate Alice.

Bob: Alice steals from me.

Reasoning that Bob fears that Alice will continue to steal from him, and that being the victim of theft is something Bob fears (Even if only in the mild sense, as in “fearing inconvenience”) I am reasonably convinced that Bob does hate Alice.

 

Bob: I hate Alice.

Me: Why do you hate Alice.

Bob: Alice is fat. I hate all fat chicks.

I’m again convinced Bob is telling the truth, for more complex reasons. I speculate that, as a youth, Bob had a relationship with a fat girl, and was ridiculed for it by his peers, so now instinctively fears women who his peers might deem fat, because of the possibility of a repeat of this painful experience.

 

Bob: I hate Alice

Me: Why do you hate Alice.

Bob: She is consistently kind and fair to me, and has saved my life many times.

I’m convinced Bob is lying, using “hate” in an unconventional way, or crazy, because I can see no way he as a sane, honest person could fear Alice or anything Alice could engender.

 

Erich Fromm comes to mind as a recent (20th century) philosopher/psychologist who had a lot to say on the connection between fear and hate (in addition to the emotion most associated with him, love). Reading him as a teenager, his various love/hate/fear aphorisms, particularly ones like “one hates what one fears becoming”, impressed me with being obviously, intuitively true.

 

To me hate is a useful, even necessary emotion that needs to be understood and used for its advantages.

Though I agree that, as with all emotions, an understanding of hate is advantageous, other than the peculiar kind of hate I describe at the start of this post, I don’t find hate an ultimately useful emotion. My experience has been that indulging the emotion of hate (or any strong emotion), allowing it to have a strong influence over one’s behavior, reduces the role of reason in one’s behavior, leading to often terrible outcomes. Without exception, every person I know who is in prison for murder committed their murder while strongly under the influence of the emotion of hate, and the actions of my own I most regret occurred when I was filled with it.

 

This is not to say that one should ignore instinctive fear/hate reactions (a cognitive behavior that’s led me personally into some very bad situations), but that the emotions should inform one’s reason, and reason dictate behavior. However, if posed with the choice of either having no hate instinct, or being as dominated by it as many people appear to be, I would chose the former.

 

There is great moral wisdom, I think, to the many moral philosophies that admonish one to “love thy enemy”, and “turn the other cheek” to offenses by people professing to hate you. My all-time favorite moral philosopher is Peace Pilgrim, who taught that true victory over people who hate you can only be achieved through transforming them into people who love you. This is one of my most central beliefs.

[TheBigDog]

You are confusing hate with fear. Fear is a perfectly natural experience. Hate is a learned response, and is only natural in so far as any other conditioned response may be.

Fear and hate are not correlated. Fear can lead to hate, but hate does not need to be the offspring of fear. Neither does fear need to lead to hate, it is just one possible outcome of fear.

 

I hate things that separate me from things I enjoy. I love swimming, and I want to spend every day doing it, but when the weather gets too cold I cannot swim. I hate the cold weather, but not from fear.

 

Hate allows one to more easily define its opposite, but arguing for its utility and inherent goodness is misguided.

 

You are correct that we do not need to run from our shadows. Turning away from our negative emotions such as fear and anger will do nothing to pluck them from their earned place within our psyche. Such action would result only in neuroses and dissonance. We have a dark side in each of us. What is important is how we approach that darkness, and how open we are to facing our true selves.

 

Accepting hatred within yourself, however, limits your growth as a sentient being, and the growth of those around you. Such acceptance would be the opposite of growth; it would be the nurturing of a sickness.

 

The only good hate serves is to allow simpler definition of it’s opposite. Don’t confuse hate with fear. Use your fears wisely, bring them to the fore of your awareness, but pluck hatreds from your existence like weeds from a garden. That is, of course, unless your desire is to nurture ignorance.

I am guessing that the opposite of hate would be love. Love is as misused and misunderstood as hate.

 

I don't think that even irrational hate can be linked to ignorance. It is how we let our feeling effect our actions that is most important. I can be a bigot, and a racist and any other vile form of irrational hate filled shell of a human being, but if those feelings never translate into harm to others, then what is the problem with those feelings?

 

How do you justify the statement that hate limits growth? Could you elaborate on that for me?

 

I am curious to hear your definition of hate, as I think it is different from mine. On a personal note, I think you watched Star Wars one too many times. :hihi:

 

Bill

[Kriminal99]

When I think of hate, I think more of intense anger driven dislike rather than just casual dislike.

 

And the thing about anger is that it impedes memory function by design. So hate does seem pretty useless for intelligent beings... Although it was evolutionarily necessary perhaps because it causes beings to act rather than plan or speculate.

 

Maybe in some situations it could be argued it is somewhat useful. For instance if I am in a club and someone tries to get a girl I like and my anger forces me to act somehow (in a succesful way) when doing something more rational or moral would have prevented me from reaching my goal.

 

However this scenario relies on the girl being irrational and not respecting rational or moral behavior. Even assuming that some portion of females might always be more socially oriented because of males being more attracted to females than vice versa, it still is possible for females to surpass any arbitrary limit of rationality. Before perhaps sipmly the biggest or best fighting male would get the female, whereas now such actions are prohibited by society so a female would look down upon it. Instead a quick witted and devious male who was willing to harm the image of others might be more succesful. Sometime in the future perhaps everyone will be much less susceptable to deception and be more likely to look down on selfish behavior so this same male would be very unsuccesful and only rational intelligent and moral males would be competitive.

 

I think instead it is always better to not be angry and rather if resorting to violence is the right thing to do, you should do it with the same non violence of spirit that a nonviolence advocate attempts to attain. Once you allow yourself to feel angry and empowered, you cannot tell the difference between when you are doing something selfish and immoral and when you are acting out of necessity.

[Lancaster]

As in all things, Hate is neither good or bad. Not only is classifying something as "good" or "bad" up to your own personal moral system, it is also relative to the current situation. Nothing is ever good or bad 100% of the time, including hate; therefore, applying a moral label to something is usually a generalization.

[TheFaithfulStone]

I think there's a distinction between "hate" and "righteous anger" although we often conflate the two notions. I think "hate" describes the desired outcome of a particular emotion - which is that you wish something was simply no more.

 

Saying "I hate this" is equivalent in my mind to saying "I wish this to be totally destroyed."

 

It is not necessarily a bad thing to want some things to be eradicated. Pollution, bigotry, poverty. It's fine to "hate" all of those things.

 

But I also think that the EMOTION of hate is subtly different from the EMOTION of righteous anger, even though we use them as synonyms frequently. (I don't think this is necessarily the "wrong" usage, but I think it confuses an issue.)

 

To my mind "hate" as in "hate crime" or "hatred" brings up an irrational wish for destruction of something that you fear. "Hate" also means that you want some particular thing or issue to be completely done away with.

 

So, I think that the word "hate" actually encompasses two (or more) separate emotions where the desired outcome is the same. You can "hate" poverty and want it to be eradicated. Or you can "hate" brown people and want them to be eradicated. One is a (relatively) reasoned and desirable outcome, and one is bigotry borne of fear and ignorance.

 

So, in this sense, hate and love are NOT opposites, because love describes several different outcomes for the same emotion, while hate describes the same outcome for several different emotions. (You can love your sister without wanting to sleep with her.)

 

TFS